Must-Have for Franck sonata fanciers. Ricci, past his prime here, still has a sense of urgency and when 'on' (he has some lapses, including a memory one), hones in on the notes to give them more life than most violinists. Argerich does a Franck that has more presence and a bit more freedom than on the cds with Maisky and, certainly, Galway (who seems to hold her back). The Prokofiev D can't compare to the one with Kremer, however. This is still a must for me, due to the piano in the Franck.

This also includes Op.102, no. 2.,
Twelve Variations on a Theme from Handel's "Judas Maccabeus,'
These two musicians have the complete set of cello sonatas out as well.
The Full Set, 2 CDs is relatively inexpensive; Click on "Full Set" to see the listing.

***ALTERNATE***: At Amazon-US, the 2-CD set that includes this CD material along with the excellent
solo Schumann Fantasie in C and Fantasiestucke and also violin sonatas recorded earlier with Ivry Gitlis.

A Must-Hear. The musical mind of Argerich in control, as she plays while directing the London Sinfonietta in the
Piano Concerto No. 11 in D by Joseph Haydn and the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, in a recording not available in the U.S. now. She produces an especially lilting performance with an almost early music zest.
Really delightful rendition.
RARE, not available in the U.S. or UK anymore

Gramophone points out:"The prime interest here is Brahms's Op. 34, originally conceived as a string quintet, finally blossoming into the masterly F minor Piano Quintet, but in between transformed into a sonata for two pianos."

Argerich's contribution to this set is the Schumann Quintet for Piano and Strings in E flat major, Opus 44:3rd movement, Scherzo. &nbsp The Quintet can be found, whole, on her 2-CD Schumann chamber music box-set of concerts in Holland.

Chopin Compact Edition- Preludes, Etc / Martha ArgerichCrotchet has the new DG Originals version, released Yr 2002, and the DG CD that has the preludes and the Chopin PC #2 with Rostropovich.
The Compact Edition is available for under $8 at MyMusic-Canada and for more at CD Now.
Frédéric Chopin(Composer), Martha Argerich (Performer) / Audio CD / Released 1991Review - Gramophone - comparison review, 4/88Review - Gramophone: (as part of full set, more detail than first review), 10/97

These are songful performances, slightly more reflective than the earlier ones. The slow movement of the 2nd concerto is so mesmerizingly beautiful to me that I've found myself unable to do anything but listen when it's playing.

Beautiful, improvisatory-like playing. The Chopin is as good as you'll ever hear, though I now somewhat prefer the more expansive new version, with Dutoit, just released. Of course, those who'd prefer a more metronomic approach and less spontaneity should look elsewhere. The Liszt has gorgeous moments as well. This shouldn't be missed.
Amazon (linked above)Tower

Chopin: Great Chopin Performers
Recordings from Chopin Competitions through the years. [ No longer findable ]
(Placed in the Multi-artist section of this site.)

Interesting to hear the Franck on the cello. The Debussy can also be heard on a VHS tape that is now and then made available, on the Kultur label, but that is presently out of stock at most places again

These are a bit too relaxed for my own taste. It's interesting to hear these played on flute, however, and I'm always interested in Argerich's subtle modifications of 'accompaniment' style to suit the soloist.

This is a beautifully packaged sampler and is a good way to hear a bit from each recording in this much-discussed series. The first link is to Amazon because of their additional user reviews. Both links here (CDnow has taken over MusicBlvd) give good track details and have audio samples
The Argerich selection is from Chopin's Preludes(24) for Piano, Op. 28 - no. 16 in b flat minor.

"Recorded in 1965 but not released until this year for contractual reasons, Argerich's studio recital immediately takes its place as one of the most extraordinary displays of keyboard command in the catalogue, with music-making of breathtaking virtuosity and electrifying power. Her genius is to make every bar of the most familiar music seem newly invented, and to give every detail its own colour and inflection; the sweep and range of her vision are huge. Chopin has rarely sounded so revolutionary, on disc or in the concert hall." - Andrew Clements, for The Guardian, 12/3/99

"
Argerich is ... capable of bringing forth huge sounds form the instrument, yet without the tone ever coarsening. Her tonal
palette is also remarkable, as is her control over detailed and difficult passages ... Rubato is one of the most important
aspects of Chopin playing, and Argerich's is so natural as to be almost indiscernible. The group of Mazurkas ... is a
delight -- fresh, spontaneous and totally idiomatic ... In short, this is one of the most distinguished
Chopin recital discs it has ever been my pleasure to hear . . . Argerich is one of our century's great pianists, and this disc
represents her at the very pinnacle of her astonishing powers." - Deryk Barker, for SoundStage.Com, 8/99

A Must-Hear. Just a stunning flight of colors and dancing sounds when Argerich was only 19 (1960-61). Added from 1972 is a truly demonic Liszt "Sonata in b minor," with intervals of unusual tenderness.

Eleven CDs. This contains recordings hard to get in single-CD format these days. Among those are several Ravel works: Scarbo; Rapsodie espagnole; Malaguena
To get complete contents of this set, see the Gramophone review for the above.
Amazon may have it but at a higher price.Tower (1/01).
A little known place is Zweitausendeins, which carries this set for about $60 U.S., 7 weeks ground shipping about $7, air about $15. Drawback? You have to navigate it in German for now though I do have an English-version for Zweitausendeins on my European page I have no affiliation with them.

Very sprightly with lots of color and verve. There are, for my own taste, too many sudden ritards in the Sonata in D Major for 2 pianos (I'm also especially fond of the Lupu/Perahia interpretation) and the music can seem a bit pushed and pulled (Rabinovitch's influence?), but this seems to happen mainly in the D Major, and I enjoy the other tracks. It could be I'm just used to a more straight approach for Mozart and will listen again.

Multi-artist recordings that include Argerich (for track-ID mainly, as they're mass-market music-candy for the most part, though not the Brilliant Classics 5-CD set of "Great Pianists") are on another page.

These were recorded after concerts played in NY and Montreal, 1997. I've heard that the Prokofiev 3rd was taken at a slower pace chosen by Dutoit and not Argerich's preference. There is more detail brought out though. The Prokofiev 1st is wonderfully intense.
The Bartok has not been recorded previously by Argerich, and the slow movement was described by a musician friend* (who played it at Cornell recently) as 'transcendent,' slower than is often heard, 'introspective while maintaining continuity and structure.'
I can confirm that the combination of the beautiful piano playing and supporting instumentalists whose notes often seem to suddenly exist out of nowhere is gorgeous as recorded here.

*Dennis Chang - Piano/Pre-Med Double-Major Graduate, June '99, and selected Recipient of the 1999-2000 Student Award for Distinction in the Arts at Cornell University. Now a grad student on scholarship at Indiana U. - Go, Dennis!.

A Basic CD. Every Ravel concerto in G I've heard her play has a first movement that's unusually propulsive , with a spirit that is Jazz itself. Astounding playing in that first movement. The slow movement has less pedal than I've heard in her live performances but it's probably hall acoustics. "Gaspard de la Nuit" is included also.

Gramophone on the Gaspard:
"Embarras de richesses indeed, now that DG have added Argerich's Gaspard to the original LP coupling. Here is a
version of Ravel's devilish triptych which is unusually faithful to his subdued dynamic markings, quite apart from its
breathtaking agility. The results ring poetically true at the same time as defying criticism in pianistic terms. DJF"

My own favorite from her recorded performances of the Prokofiev 3rd piano concerto was released on an Italian live-performance CD, under the baton of Richard Chailly (Berlin Philarmonic). It's on Artists Live, FED 049, and very hard to find, but Allegro Music may carry it.
Argerich's live performances, in which she seems to thrive on risk-taking, tend to be a bit more urgent in thrust while even more expressive than in studio sessions. Although this studio recording with Abbado is inevitably less electric than any live ones I've heard, this was the 2nd of two recordings I heard on the radio that convinced me Argerich is the most powerfully expressive player I've heard in decades and which sent me on a hunt for more of that sound and that temperament.

Prokofiev: Violinsonaten, 5 Melodien / Kremer, Argerich800.com says this is usually shipped within 2-3 weeks (as of 8/17/99*). It's out of stock at most online stores, and Tower no longer lists it as Special Order item.Sergei Prokofiev(Composer), et al / Audio CD / Released 1993

Highly recommended. Kremer does the most sensual Prokofiev playing I've ever heard coaxed from a violin. These two take you on quite a romp - one of my favorite chamber music recordings.

Essential. The Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 in live performance is already legendary. The Tchaikowsky Concerto #1 is intense, though I prefer the 1994 Tchaikowsky with Abbado for its mixture of intensity and lyricism and the communication between orchestra and soloist. So while this is prime, also consider the 1994 Tchaikowsky with Abbado for what I think is the best Tchaikowsky #1 she's recorded -- that one from live performance and rehearsals. See last entry on this list for more on that recording.

The somewhat wilder one under Kazimierz Kord, 1980, from an Italian live-performance CD, has been revived on a Polygram Polska CD (see first Argerich page for this)Note also, the new Philips 50 version, below.

With Rabinovich. Sparkling. But again, more sudden ritards than I like. This seems to happen in recordings with Rabinovich. I've preferred the renditions on laserdisc (Berlin) and on VHS (France) with Freire, but both are currently unavailable. Definitely more than worthwhile, however, for Rachmaninoff- or 4-hand-repertoire fanciers. Lionel Choi prefers this recording, however.

Gramophone's "CH" grumbles over this 1984 recording of the Ravel Concerto in G. This recording also contains the Concerto for Left Hand in D, played by Michel Beroff.
DG's "TheOriginals" series features the 1967 recording of this work

This is my favorite solo CD from Argerich.
Some admire Argerich only for her speed but she is often magical in many of the slower moments. The final movement of the Fantasie is haunting, played with deepest feeling. The Fantasiestücke Op 12 is a wonder to me. I have no idea why this recording was not available from EMI in the United States for so long. It's a remastering of a 1976 Ricordi.8/6/00 UPDATE: EMI re-released it in the U.S. finally. but it seems to be out of stock at most places I've checked. On my European page, I see it's sometimes orderable from Amazon-UK .

Amazon-US has the 2-CD set that includes this CD material along with the
wonderful Beethoven PC 2 and Haydn Concerto she did with London Sinfonietta (as director and pianist) and also violin sonatas recorded earlier with Ivry Gitlis. 3rd party sellers seem to have this CD at decent pricing there.

Very beautifully played, with a wide range of quickly shifting moods given their due and then some. One of my favorite albums.

From Bryce Morrison of Gramophone:"Hear her releasing the mystery at the heart of the Second “Intermezzo” from Kreisleriana (the one that left poor Clara
begging, like Lady Macbeth, for more lucidity and less 'admired disorder') and note how her Eusebius is so painfully lost in
multicoloured dreams, how her Florestan hints at something frighteningly beyond boisterous high-jinks. And such things are
achieved without a trace of self-consciousness or artifice."

A Must-Have for chamber music aficionados. A killer chamber music set (2 CDs) recorded live in Holland at a festival after "one memorable day of rehearsal." This is full of exquisite material and performances. Wonderful album.This was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Award for "Best Chamber Music Performance

Beautiful (but turn it up -loud- to get full effect). Led by Harnoncourt, this takes a few minutes to get used to, soundwise, but then it takes off, the piano concerto sounding even more improvisatory in feel than in many prior recordings I've loved (with Rostropovich and with Celibidache, on Italian live-performance CDs) though some inner detail is lost with the distanced miking. It was recorded live July 1992.
Kremer is appropriately gutsy in the usually undervalued Schumann Violin Concerto, the delayed bass-note section given its due under Harnoncourt and the long last section a grand, almost triumphal dance when played at the slower tempo Schumann indicated. [Classical Net's Tom Godell agrees.] Critics unaware of Schumann's own markings will bristle.

Gramophone excerpt:
"The sound again has impressive presence (all four performances
were taped live at the Philharmonie during May 1993) yet the
disc's real tour de force—both sonically and musically—is
Scriabin's Promethean effusion, his Poem of Fire.
The very opening chord tells all, a tensely held pensive and
frightening augury and a fitting prelude to everything that
follows... Abbado serves as master of ceremonies, Argerich as a
crazed high priestess, her delirious, delicate and unpredictable solo weaving through the orchestra like a bubbling stream of consciousness. That is how it should sound --over-wrought, overpowering, utterly unhinged and yet calculated even to the smallest detail. "

Wonderfully playful rendition of the Shostakovich Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, op. 35. The Haydn Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D is not exactly period-performance, especially in its ornamentation, but I enjoy it for the modern rendition it is, from a musician who is at home with dance-based music.Read more about this title...

The Strauss Burleske in DVD is now available.*VHS* versions are available at $9 and up, though they tend to be used copies and the price can get quite high.
Strauss: New Year's Eve Concert 1992 / Abbado, Berlin
Richard Strauss(Composer), et al / Audio CD / Released 1993CD Review - Gramophone

Rip-roaring 'Burleske in d minor.' The virtuoso (Hans von Bulow) for whom Strauss wrote the piece complained that it was too difficult and refused to take the time to learn it.. Eugen d'Albert, another pupil of Liszt, played it with Strauss at the podium but was granted his requests that the score be cut and the solo part simplified. Argerich seems to have no such problems with the score as written, however. Strauss would have been happy.
Opera-lovers, also, will find much to like about this disc, which is from a live New Year's performance of Strauss works.

VIDEO: This HAS been available in both VHS and laserdisc. The lighting and shooting from above is unflattering, making Argerich appear older in '92 than she does today. The playing is amazing - improbable pyrotechnics alternating with quiet lyricism.
Go back to Argerich videos section if you came from there.

Basic. Sometimes called a killer coupling by DGG (of somewhat tamer studio performances) that led others and myself to search out more Argerich recordings and live performances -- The Tchaikowsky 1st with Dutoit, and the Prokofiev 3rd with Abbado.

This is, for me, the most galvanic and expressive performance on record of this otherwise overplayed concerto. It was edited from three performances and rehearsals in Berlin, 1994 (thanks to Nestor from Miami for this information), and is notable for the chamber music give and take you seldom hear between soloist and a large orchestra. It's absolutely electric and full of unexpected lyricism in even the fastest passages. My favorite Argerich concerto recording, even though I've never liked the piece that much. What is ironic is that, with this interpretation, I hear many things that are new and really beautiful. I'm awe-struck by this one.
As ever, not for those who prefer a more straightforward approach, as the famed spontaneity and a more reflective approach in the slower passages reign supreme here.

Excerpts from reviews linked above:

Gramophone (Bryce Morrison):""...here is [her] third, live recording with the Berlin Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado surpassing even those earlier and legendary performances.
Argerich has never sounded on better terms with the piano, more virtuoso yet engagingly human. Lyrical and insinuating, to a degree her performance seems to be made of the tumultuous elements themselves, of fire and ice, rain and sunshine."

Stanford Daily (William Hsieh ):"Few could rival the sense of freshness and spontaneity Argerich brings to this played-to-death war horse. Surprising turns and twists abound in just about every measure."

Here are mostly automated Searches of available Argerich recordings at several online stores:

For CDs at Amazon, click here. For the listing at CD Universe, here.
The EuropeanCrotchet's listing of 100+ here, and Tower's ishere.The My Music (Canada - good pricing) listing is here.

All shipping estimates should be read as "usually shipping within (whatever time)."

Any prices shown for online stores are subject to change due to special temporary sales, etc.

Ordering items via this website's links at the usual discounts given by Amazon, CD Universe, MyMusic, SheetMusicPlus ,and Tower, etc., helps support the regular updating of this list at no added cost to customers of any of those online stores. I hope this area will be helpful to those looking for music or videos.